The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Rodents: part one

Another new squirrel - making 130 species depicted in the Zoochat galleries out of c.300 species total, which is a quite remarkable level of representation.


Zanj Sun Squirrel Heliosciurus undulatus by @Azubaa taken on Zanzibar:

full

Zanj Sun Squirrel - ZooChat
 
Chlidonias said:
Paraxerus
Eleven species, of which three species are represented in the Zoochat galleries.

Taxonomic note: this genus was formerly combined with Funisciurus (rope squirrels).


Smith's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus cepapi
Ten subspecies are listed in Wilson and Reeder's Mammal Species of the World: bororensis, carpi, cepapi, cepapoides, chobiensis, phalaena, quotus, sindi, soccatus, yulei. Kingdon's Mammals of Africa lists nine subspecies (absent soccatus, which was treated as a synonym of yulei). Various other subspecies have also been listed elsewhere, such as kalaharicus and maunensis.


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Zimbabwe (subspecies cepapi)

full

Smiths Bush Squirrel | ZooChat


Photo by @Maguari in the wild, Botswana (subspecies chobiensis [the photo is labelled as maunensis which here I treat as a synonym])

full

Smith's Bush Squirrel, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana, 30/04/16 | ZooChat


Photo by @Giant Eland in the wild, Zambia (subspecies yulei I think)

full

Smith's Bush Squirrel (Paraxerus cepapi) - ZooChat


Ochre Bush Squirrel Paraxerus ochraceus
Eight subspecies: affinis, animosus, aruscensis, electus, ganana, jacksoni, kahari, ochraceus


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Tanzania (subspecies aruscensis)

full

Ochre Bush Squirrel | ZooChat


Photo by @LaughingDove in the wild, Kenya (subspecies jacksoni)

full

Ochre Bush Squirrel | ZooChat


Red Bush Squirrel Paraxerus palliatus
Seven subspecies: bridgemani, frerei, ornatus, palliatus, sponsus, swynnertoni, tanae


Photo by @Giant Eland at EndoFaun Zoo (South Africa) (unknown subspecies)

full

red bush squirrel or red-bellied coast squirrel (Paraxerus palliatus) - ZooChat


.......................................................................................


None of the remaining eight species in the genus are represented in the Zoochat galleries:


Alexander's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus alexandri
Monotypic


Boehm's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus boehmi
Four subspecies: antoniae, boehmi, emini, gazellae


Cooper's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus cooperi
Monotypic


Striped Bush Squirrel Paraxerus flavovittis
Four subspecies: exgeanus, flavovittis, ibeanus, mossambicus


Black and Red Bush Squirrel Paraxerus lucifer
Monotypic


Green Bush Squirrel Paraxerus poensis
Monotypic


Swynnerton's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus vexillarius
Two subspecies: byatti, vexillarius


Vincent's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus vincenti
Monotypic
Click to expand...

Any chance you and anyone else knows what subspecies of Paraxerus palliatus occurs on the east coast of Kenya? Or at least what sources may be useful for trying to figure this out. iNaturalist doesn't have any animals identified past species level.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Any chance you and anyone else knows what subspecies of Paraxerus palliatus occurs on the east coast of Kenya? Or at least what sources may be useful for trying to figure this out. iNaturalist doesn't have any animals identified past species level.

~Thylo
Click to expand...

Checking Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World, the relevant subspecies is P. p. tanae :)
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Any chance you and anyone else knows what subspecies of Paraxerus palliatus occurs on the east coast of Kenya? Or at least what sources may be useful for trying to figure this out. iNaturalist doesn't have any animals identified past species level.
Click to expand...
TeaLovingDave said:
Checking Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World, the relevant subspecies is P. p. tanae :)
Click to expand...
I use various sources (because mammal subspecies limits are often in disarray). GBIF is always a good place to start though - e.g. in this case (using MOW as a reference) Paraxerus palliatus (Peters 1852)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Checking Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World, the relevant subspecies is P. p. tanae :)
Click to expand...
Chlidonias said:
I use various sources (because mammal subspecies limits are often in disarray). GBIF is always a good place to start though - e.g. in this case (using MOW as a reference) Paraxerus palliatus (Peters 1852)
Click to expand...

Thanks to you both of you! Looks good for tanae for my animals. I uploaded a couple photos of this taxa the other day:

https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/red-bellied-bush-squirrel.675979/
full


https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/red-bellied-bush-squirrel.675980/
full


~Thylo
 
I have added in three "new" squirrels to the thread, all photos from Taiwan by @ronnienl

Taiwan Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista lena
full

Taiwan Giant Flying Squirrel - ZooChat

Taiwan Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista grandis
full

Formosan Giant Flying Squirrel - ZooChat

Taiwan Striped Squirrel Tamiops formosanus
This generally is treated as a subspecies of T. maritimus but given the level of mammal endemism in Taiwan I am following the splitting of it in this thread. (Both the above flying squirrels are also Taiwanese splits from mainland species).
full

Maritime Striped Squirrel - ZooChat


There are heaps more new rodent species to add from the recent uploads of @Giant Eland but they will have to wait until I have a big chunk of time free. For individual photos here and there (like the ones above) I can find time to edit them in, but with those of @Giant Eland I know I can easily find them all when I have time to do them all at once.
 
Last edited:
ThylacineAlive said:
The idahoensis subspecies of the Piute Ground Squirrel has been recently split from the rest of the species: UNCG researcher identifies new American mammal | Research & Engagement

Now called the "Snake River Plain Ground Squirrel". Not sure if the split will hold, but I had photos of the taxa so figured I'd upload:
Snake River Plain Ground Squirrel - ZooChat
Snake River Plain Ground Squirrel - ZooChat

~Thylo
Click to expand...
Thanks, I have added that into the thread. Both subspecies (idahoensis and artemesiae) have been split off from mollis, so mollis is now monotypic. Your photos are therefore nominate idahoensis.

Paper here: https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jmammal/gyae135/7922595

I was going to just add one of your photos into mollis with a note about the split (because then I wouldn't need to edit any of the rest of the thread with species numbers and so on), but then I decided to just go ahead and add it as a full species.
 
Chlidonias said:
Thanks, I have added that into the thread. Both subspecies (idahoensis and artemesiae) have been split off from mollis, so mollis is now monotypic. Your photos are therefore nominate idahoensis.

Paper here: https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jmammal/gyae135/7922595

I was going to just add one of your photos into mollis with a note about the split (because then I wouldn't need to edit any of the rest of the thread with species numbers and so on), but then I decided to just go ahead and add it as a full species.
Click to expand...

my “Piute” photo is also a Snake River Plain Ground Squirrel. Photo taken from same area as @ThylacineAlive
 
Chlidonias said:
Iomys
Two species, neither of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Javanese or Horsfield's Flying Squirrel Iomys horsfieldi
Four subspecies: davisoni, horsfieldii, penangensis, thomsoni
Click to expand...

I have recently uploaded photographs of this species, which I found in Singapore.
Horsfield's Flying Squirrel ~ Old Upper Thomson Road

Horsfield's Flying Squirrel ~ Old Upper Thomson Road

Horsfield's Flying Squirrel ~ Old Upper Thomson Road

Horsfield's Flying Squirrel ~ Old Upper Thomson Road

 
I have added all of this year's "part one" rodent photos into the thread (so, not all the rodent photos, just the non-murid ones - "part two" will be done later). There are quite a lot of them, so I will just put links to the photo in the gallery rather than have all the photos displayed in this post.


First is a Horsfield's Flying Squirrel Iomys horsfieldii by @Dr. Wolverine which was a new genus for the thread.
Horsfield's Flying Squirrel ~ Old Upper Thomson Road - ZooChat



All the other photos are by @Giant Eland and represent thirteen new species for the thread, three new genera, and one whole new family (Abrocomidae). There were a bunch of other new photos I used as well to replace ones which weren't as illustrative, and also one (Olympic Marmot Marmota olympus) which was of a live animal which I used to replace a photo of a taxidermy specimen.


Olympic Marmot Marmota olympus - Olympic Marmot (Marmota olympus) - ZooChat


Southern Amazon Red Squirrel Sciurus spadiceus - southern Amazon red squirrel (Sciurus spadiceus) - ZooChat

Ruwenzori Sun Squirrel Heliosciurus ruwenzorii - Ruwenzori sun squirrel (Heliosciurus ruwenzorii) - ZooChat

Alexander's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus alexandri - Alexander's bush squirrel (Paraxerus alexandri) - ZooChat

Boehm's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus boehmi - Boehm's bush squirrel (Paraxerus boehmi) - ZooChat

North Idaho Ground Squirrel Urocitellus brunneus - Idaho Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus brunneus) - ZooChat

Townsend's Ground Squirrel Urocitellus townsendii - Townsend's ground squirrel (Urocitellus townsendii) - ZooChat

Washington Ground Squirrel Urocitellus washingtoni - Washington ground squirrel (Urocitellus washingtoni) - ZooChat


Beecroft's Anomalure Anomalurus beecrofti - Beecroft's Anomalure (Anomalurus beecrofti) - ZooChat


Speke's Pectinator Pectinator spekei - Speke's pectinator (Pectinator spekei) - ZooChat
[new genus]


Cape Mole Rat Georychus capensis - Cape mole-rat (Georychus capensis) - ZooChat
[new genus]


Amazonian Long-tailed Porcupine Coendou longicaudatus - Long-tailed Porcupine (Coendou longicaudatus) - ZooChat


Bennett's Chinchilla Rat Abrocoma bennettii - Bennett's chinchilla rat (Abrocoma bennettii) - ZooChat
[new family - Abrocomidae]


Simons' Spiny Rat Proechimys simonsi - Simons's spiny rat (Proechimys simonsi) - ZooChat
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top